Bermondsey Abbey

Bermondsey Abbey was an English Benedictine monastery. Most widely known as an 11th-century foundation, it had a precursor mentioned in the early 8th century, and was centred on what is now Bermondsey Square, the site of Bermondsey Market, Bermondsey, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast London, England.

Foundation

A monastery is known to have existed at Bermondsey before 715 AD, when it was a Surrey colony of the important Mercian monastery of Medeshamstede, later known as Peterborough. Though surviving only in a copy written at Peterborough in the 12th century, a letter of Pope Constantine (708-715) grants privileges to a monastery at Vermundesei. It is likely that this monastery continued, probably as a secular minster, at least until the 9th-century Viking invasions.

Nothing more is heard of any church at Bermondsey until 1082, when, according to the "Annales Monasterii de Bermundeseia", a monastery was founded there by one Alwinus Child, with royal licence. It is highly likely, given the trend to continuity of sacred sites, that this church was founded on the site of the earlier monastery. It is also possible that this foundation was a direct successor to the church last mentioned in the early 8th century.

Bermondsey

Coordinates: 51°29′55″N 0°04′33″W / 51.4986°N 0.0757°W / 51.4986; -0.0757

Bermondsey (/ˈbɜːrməndzi/) is a district in south London, and a part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark/Borough, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham. To the north is the City of London and Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

History

Toponomy

Bermondsey may be understood to mean 'Beornmund's island'; but, while "Beornmund" represents an Old English personal name, identifying an individual once associated with the place, the element "-ey" represents Old English "eg", for "island", "piece of firm land in a fen", or simply a "place by a stream or river". Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is as likely to have been a higher, drier spot in an otherwise marshy area. Though Bermondsey's earliest written appearance is in the Domesday Book of 1086, it also appears in a source which, though surviving only in a copy written at Peterborough Abbey in the 12th century, claiming "ancient rights" unproven purporting to be a transcripton of a letter of Pope Constantine (708-715), in which he grants privileges to a monastery at Vermundesei, then in the hands of the abbot of Medeshamstede, as Peterborough was known at the time.

Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)

Bermondsey was a borough constituency centred on the Bermondsey district of South London, England. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Election were held using the first-past-the-post voting system.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election and abolished for the 1918 general election, when its territory was represented by two new constituencies: Rotherhithe and Bermondsey West.

A new Bermondsey constituency was created for the 1950 general election, and abolished for the 1983 election, when it was largely replaced by the new Southwark and Bermondsey constituency.

History

The 1983 by-election was one of the most bitterly contested by-elections in the United Kingdom as it involved Bob Mellish, the retired Labour MP, running a highly personal and homophobic campaign against the Labour candidate, Peter Tatchell. The result was the election of Simon Hughes as a Liberal in a former Labour stronghold.

Bermondsey (disambiguation)

Bermondsey may refer to :